For years I've bought non-detergent 30W motor oil for the Cub engine at a Big Box (WM) store. Now they don't have it--just a 30W Heavy Duty oil. What brand of non-detergent 30W oil do you use? Where to get it?

I notice that some stores have non-detergent 30W motor oil that is specified "not for engines" but for compressors and the like. I would like some clarification, please.

DickB wrote:Local NAPA store clerk says that they have the same oil in a NAPA bottle for $3.99

I was told the same thing by the guys working at NAPA, that their oil is the same as Valvoline, I found this hard to believe so I wrote to the company and asked. I wrote to Valvoline/Ashland to see if they could confirm or deny these statements. The letter and information that I received back from them stated that Valvoline did in fact manufacture and refine their (NAPA) product, but it is not the same.

The letter had gone on to say that the blend that is manufactured for sale by NAPA by Valvoline starts with the same "base oils" but past that, it is made/mixed to their (the customers) specifications/choices. There are "key differences" between the formulation of the Valvoline product and that which is produced for their customer (NAPA). In short, from the manufacturer, they "are a similar formula" which is close, but not the same oil.

One good way to look at it is, Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola are the same kind of product and have a similar formula, but they are not they same. Valvoline and NAPA brand oil are the same kind of product and have a similar formula, but they are not the same.

Where you are, right now, is of absolutly no use unless you are able to get away from it, FAST!

Any oil you put in the cub, is far better refined and formulated, than the oil that was available in the 1940's and 1950's, so, even the poorest oil now, is superior to what the tractor was designed to use.Ed